To The Moon And Back

'The time is always right, for a mother to meet her son.'

'Come on, Lily!' said James, trying to make his wife join him, Padfoot, Fred, Moony, Nymphadora, Dumbledore and many others to play Quidditch.
'No, James ... I told you — I wanna look at the mortals today — I wanna check on Harry ...' said Lily, looking like she was almost about to cry. She would never forgive herself for not being with her son every minute of every day he grew up, being there when he got his Hogwarts acceptance letter, kicking Petunia's ass for being an asshole, be the first her son would write a letter to, telling her he was dating Ginny Weasley, the love of his life or giving him the sibling who died with her that horrible night.
'Oh, I forgot — I'll join you for a bit ...' said James.

So much had changed since they had died, that awful night in Godric's Hollow; Harry had grown up, Voldemort had died, resurrected and died once more, Alice and Frank had been tortured to insanity , all the Marauders had died, Snape had died and was now hiding from them (or they thought he had died, Lily, however, thought he had somehow survived since he had not shown himself to her ... Lily had even looked forward to seeing him once she saw him die, of course, she didn't think it was any good that he had died, but she missed him and now knew more about him), Harry had just started being a bloody Professor (Lily was thrilled to see her son work at Hogwarts, James was happy as well, but had been looking forward to seeing his son as an auror, hunting down dark wizards) and the marauders were once again back together ( not Peter, he was replaced by Fred, he now had the nickname: Weasel ...)

He and Lily sat down at the end of a nearby cloud, and soon James and Lily had jumped off the cloud and were flying towards Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
They flew to the Quidditch pitch and started walking towards the old castle they had once called home.

This wasn't the first time they had been there as dead, the first time was under their son's sorting, the second when Harry had seen them in a mirror thinking they were just hallucinations (they had been going back there every time he had gone to the mirror just to see him, and for once in many years he would see them as well), they had been there at every adventure he had ever been on at the end of the school year, and he had seen them quite a few times as well (the mirror in his first year, the graveyard in his fourth year and the Forbidden Forest in his seventh) and they had been with him in the DA meetings, they had been so proud of him, especially James as Harry had broken many, many school rules.

But every time they had been there, everything was the same as it had once been, only people could not see them; they were invisible, not even the ghosts could see them, even though they were just as dead as they were.
Only this time, something felt different, more real.
'Finally' said a very familiar voice behind them.
'Took you long enough to realize —'
'— Realize what, Sev?' said Lily turning around to see a greasy haired man in his thirties, with a long hooked nose, and black eyes.
'— that you are mortal once more' said another voice, coming from behind Snape. The other man was tall with a silver beard, blue eyes and had a hooked nose just like the other, only his looked like it had been broken. The man smiled, a twinkle in his eyes appearing.

'I don't think they realized, Dumbledore ...' Snape whispered to the bearded man.
'Doesn't matter, I only wanted a dramatic entry' said the old man chuckling slightly.

James who had turned around a few seconds later than his wife looked at the two men in curiosity. He had seen Dumbledore a couple of times, but never Snivellus, not in the dead's world.

'Professor? What the bloody hell are you talking about?' said James, not looking away from the two men in front of him.
'You are once again, mortal —'
'— Mortal?' said Lily.
'Yes, miss Evans — I mean Mrs Potter — you, your husband, Sirius, Mr Weasley, Remus Lupin, Mrs Lupin and a house elf named Dobby are once again — mortal.' said Dumbledore. 'You must wonder, what I mean by saying this — but you and the other people who will soon join you, have been picked out to once again — live. Why you must wonder ... you're simply the ones Harry means a lot to, and now feels the most guilty about — dying for him, in his own words.'

'But Professor, I thought, no magic could reawaken the dead ...'
'There is now,' said Dumbledore. 'No one has ever been killed so many times as your son, and being the boy who survived the killing curse, not only once, but twice, has its privileges ... somehow he, the boy who lived, has resurrected you ... without his own knowledge of course — But Severus here was not — you see he never died.'
Lily was about to open her mouth, but Snape had interrupted her. 'That's a story for another time, as I suppose your probably dying to meet your son ... please don't take that literally ... I think it's enough to lose you once in twenty years ...'
Lily smiled slightly and looked at Dumbledore.
'Are we still the same age as when we ... died, or?'
'No, I am afraid not'
'Good' said Lily thinking how disturbing it would have been if she and her son were just a couple of years apart.

She grabbed James's hand and proceeded to run towards the castle, but James stood still. 'Lily dear, he thinks we're dead, we must show our selves when the time is right.'
Lily let go of his hand. 'The time is always right, for a mother to meet her son.' and with that, she ran off towards the castle, leaving a puzzled James, a chuckling Dumbledore and a Snape.

I'm so happy!!! 647 reads!!! It means the world to me!!!
Word count: 1023
-Astra💛🖤